Meeting Up & Beginning The Pilgrimmage

And here's the motley crew.   A couple were doing the pilgrimage for religious (Catholic) reasons, but most of us were doing it for either spiritual or cultural reasons.   Didn't matter; the group was very congenial, supportive of each other, and we all had a terrific time:

So off we go on our first day's hike...and soon Tom is already far ahead of me.  :<(((

But soon enough I catch up (he waited for me), although it becomes clear that this is NOT the Rice University hiking path on which we trained.   'Phew!   Tough climb!